Saturday in the Park

We actually had sun for the important part of Saturday. That meant we could get to the Farmer’s Market, walk the dog, get to a greenhouse to buy more flowers and plant them all before it started raining. Life was good. Of course it rained almost all day today and I’m not sure we ever got above 50F which is cold for this time of year. The spring weather gods are fickle. I am tired of having to run the heater. It is about time to give that a rest.

There was enough of a break in the rain that Rocco got a walk today as well. With his age and other issues, he can’t walk as far as he used to so I have to be conscious of him slowing down so I can turn him around. He can’t jump in the car anymore so I’m giving him a boost up and that’s no fun. But, to a dog, going in the car to someplace where you can walk is magical and I can’t take it away from him as long as he’s still able to get up and walk a bit.

Life as non planners meets the Farmer’s Market. I’ve mentioned before that we like to spread out our purchases to support as many people as possible. But we also get into that mode where vegetables become shiny things and we must buy as many as possible. We do sit down before we go and look through the various protein sources we have in the freezer and make a tentative list. Then, it just all goes out the window as we hit the market and everything looks good.

Sometimes we adjust on the fly and replan things based on the first set of purchases. And then that blows up as we keep shopping. First stop we bought some spring lettuce because we loved what we bought the last week. That’s salad #1. Then, we walked a little further on and saw some scallions and spring garlic. Spring garlic looks like a scallion but it is just young garlic. Has the aroma of garlic when you cook it but I think the taste is milder. Anyway, we toss one idea and my wife says she can use both in fried rice so that’s now on the list.

Further on and we see someone selling asparagus. We actually picked some at a place last week but this was easier and it was also fresh. The season for fresh local asparagus is pretty short so you take advantage of it when you can. Had no idea what to do with it but into the bag it went. Then we found a place with nice heads of butter lettuce. Well that’s salad #2. We had previously decided on one meal that didn’t require any fresh produce so we were technically done at this point. Then, we hit one last booth and he had young carrots so we got those and then he mentioned he still had two bags of spinach left and the season for that is short so you also have to take advantage of it. Add one bag for us.

Then, we’re walking around and going through the latest version of the plan and realize that we didn’t account for the asparagus. So something had to give. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what all we’ve settled on because we never write anything down and always forget the plan by mid week. If we’re lucky, we discuss the day’s dinner in time to thaw something. Pretty sure we’ll do salad tomorrow with some kind of protein. Beyond that it is anyone’s guess.

Sometime back, I think I wrote about Sunday evenings and how there used to be these sense of dread that would build up as the night went on. Yeah, the work environment was pretty toxic so I was tensing up to face another week. I know that tomorrow I’ll have to go in and talk to someone in HR about insurance but I also know I don’t have to be there for the entire day and that is making this a very relaxing night.

As luck would have it, I have three doctor appointments scheduled for this coming week. Got the foot doctor on Tuesday (dance a lot and you’ll probably end up needing one) and then the ear, nose and throat guy on Wednesday to discuss allergies. Thursday morning is my last occupational therapy appointment for my hands. Perfect timing to get them all in while I’m still covered by the company. I will have coverage after I leave but it involved transitioning from the company plan to Cobra which doesn’t change the coverage but changes something so there is paperwork involved. And paperwork always takes longer than a week. They say that we are fully covered from the day we leave but that it would likely require being reimbursed for any covered expenses at some point in the future. So I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with that.

Tomorrow is the first day of my last full week of working at that place. Seems so final and still a little strange. But better things lie ahead.